When I was a wee lass, I had a Sesame Street sign language book that taught some of the basic signs, which I spent hours memorizing. As the years passed, I forgot most of what I learned, but I made sure to remember the alphabet because, even if I had to fingerspell everything, I wanted to be able to communicate if I met someone who was hard of hearing. I’ve only actually met two people so far, and since they both had hearing aids and read lips with impressive skill, I never had to break out my slow and awkward fingerspelling. Anyway, I thought it was cool that one of the F fonts is Finger Signing. In addition to showing the position of the fingers, it also has the letter in the corner, so you can easily learn the ASL alphabet from the font.

The next one just makes me laugh – it’s letters formed out of band-aids and is called First Aid. That’s what most of my first aid looks like, too: slap a bunch of band-aids on the problem and hope for the best.

This next one has the most boring name so far: Filled ABC. I mean, yes, it certainly describes the font, but it doesn’t capture the variety of patterns that give it visual interest. I think it would look way more awesome if it had colors, but even in black and white it reminds me of the bold patterns in Aboriginal art.

In today’s hypersensitive culture, some might be offended by the name Fat Boy Smiles, but for me, all those happy faces do their job and make me grin. I don’t think it’s possible to be in a bad mood while typing with this font.

I was drawn to Fair Faces because the first novel I wrote was a YA Horror set at the fair (I called it A Fair to Remember – hee!). Although it’s been ‘drawered’ for years, I’ve recently pulled it out to see if I can salvage it. Maybe I’ll use this font for chapter headings to inspire me. But for now, I’ll use it to inspire my tweet tale, although it’s not so much a tale but a tweet synopsis of the novel.

It’s supposed to be a night of fun at the fair, but for a teen hounded by fear, the line between shrieks of joy & cries of terror is blurry.

What do you think of these fonts? Do they inspire any stories in your mind? How Fantastic is Freya with her letter F?

I mentioned yesterday I was disappointed in the D font offerings because there weren’t really any that grabbed my attention like previous letters. Well, I thought of another reason: B brought us cute bunnies, and C offered up adorable cats – but no sweet doggies for D? As a dog lover, I find that unacceptable! It's not enough that my daily letters are displayed by Rish family dogs, I want a dog font! Fortunately, the E font made a small attempt at compensating for that egregious oversight by presenting Ennobled Pet. Sure, one might say these could be the footprints of cats or some other animal, but I choose to believe these are the footprints of the dogs that tiptoe across my heart.

There are a lot of different script/handwriting fonts out there, but I liked this one because it seems like Ersatz Quality is what you’d use if you were going to digitally sign the Declaration of Independence.

I did a lot of cross-stitching when I was young, so I like Embroidery for the nostalgia factor.

I know nothing about cars. In fact, I would be a terrible witness to a crime where a getaway car was used because here’s how I identify cars: car, truck, or van. Beyond that, I could tell you the color and that’s it. So when I saw the Eagle GT II font, I could tell it was a tire tread but didn’t understand the name. Fortunately, my good friend Google informed me the Eagle GT II is “Goodyear's Performance All-Season tire developed for the drivers of sports cars, coupes, performance pickups and sport utility vehicles looking to combine classic styling with all-season traction.” Good to know! I just think a tire tread font looks cool.

For today’s tweet tale inspiration, I picked another font with a weird name even though the font itself is kind of muddled. But with the name Earwax Wit, I just had to use it.

He watches his son, convinced he’s dumber than the orange crud he scrapes out of his ears. He sure hopes his wife had an affair back then.

What do you think of these fonts? Do they inspire any stories in your mind? How Earnest does Lily look with her letter E?

I have to say, as I scrolled through the D fonts, I was kind of disappointed. For A, B, and C, there were so many I thought looked cool or different or had names I loved that I spent most of my time just trying to narrow down my favorites to a manageable amount. But even though D had a ton of choices, there weren’t many that struck my fancy.

The first one I’m presenting is one I don’t even particularly like, I just thought it was funny to have a font available that is even worse than my own handwriting (which is pretty terrible). So here’s Dirty Cursive for your enjoyment.

Next up is Dearest Dorothy – I really liked all the curly cues on this one.

Delirium is interesting because even though the form of the font itself is relatively plain, the uppercase letters face the correct way, while the 'lowercase' letters are backwards. The backwards letters really help convey that sense of confusion that comes with delirium.

And here’s Driftwood – it’s one of those where the look of the letters is all right there in the name.

For my tweet tale inspiration, I’m using Dead Ewoks Everywhere. It’s another where the font itself isn’t very special (it even has a similar lumpy look to Delirium), but the name is a real doozy. It’s so random I can’t even imagine the thought process that led to giving a font that name. Between the wide font and the long name, the whole name doesn't even fit in the example image.

When I go into the groomers, it looks like dead ewoks everywhere. I gather the fur and make sweaters to sell to rich people with chihuahuas.

What do you think of these fonts? Do they inspire any stories in your mind? How Delightful is Molly with her letter D?

Since I featured Bunny Rabbits yesterday, it might be too soon for another cutesy font, but this Cats Alphabet one was too adorable not to share. It’s a good thing I didn’t know about it when my brother and I were making our short film Saying Goodbye (it features a death-predicting cat) because I would have wanted to use it for the title screen and all of our marketing. My brother is in advertising, so he takes his fonts very seriously, and this would have led to serious sibling battles. Because even though the business side of me would have known everything had to look professional, the animal-loving side of me would have been squeeing, “But it’s letters shaped like CATS!1!1! We HAVE to use it!!1!”

I picked the next one because it is so random. And so creepy. Why are so many of the fonts creepy? Can you feel the Crazy Eyes staring at you?

Cartoon Bones is another creepy-ish one, but I like the touch of humor that comes with forming letters out of bones.

This next one made me laugh because the name of the font and the actual font go together so perfectly. The font wouldn’t be nearly as fun if it didn’t have such a spot-on name: Cheap Ink Killed My Printer.

The last one is another of those where the font itself isn’t that special, but the name is awesome. What does Casket Breath even smell like? I’m pretty sure I don't want to know. But just the phrase has sparked at least five different stories in my brain, since it would take some unusual circumstances to have casket breath. So of course this is the font I’m using to inspire today’s tweet tale.

His heart sings when she slips into bed. He’s missed her so. But as she leans in 4 a kiss, the smell reminds him why he should be terrified.

What do you think of these fonts? Do they inspire any stories in your mind? How cute is Chloe with her letter C?

Even though it’s a little early for Easter, today’s first font is Bunny Rabbits. At first I thought it was cute the way the bunnies and their ears formed the letters, but I don’t know ... the more I look at it, the more I think it’s sort of creepy.

Next up is British Museum, which caught my eye with its classic vibe. I like how the flourishes on the letters make it look like an antique.

The next three aren’t very exciting in the actual font department, but I was immediately struck with how I could put their names together to form my font inspired tweet tale for the day:

It’s tough to believe it’s already time for the A to Z Challenge again. It’s even tougher to believe I’ve signed up for this insanity for a third time, but here we are!

The first font I’m featuring is called Aquarium. I think it’s adorable, and each letter tells it’s own story. I especially love that most of the letters include a mischievous cat perhaps a tad too interested in the fish.

The second one freaks me out a bit. It’s called Alpha Woman Hair, and all the letters are formed by a woman’s face and her long hair. Although it kinda gives me the heebie-jeebies, I appreciate the creative idea.

I picked the next one because of its name: A Yummy Apology. The beginning ‘a’ might be a bit of a cheat, but it’s listed with the other A Fonts, so I’m sticking to their categorization. Even though I think the swirls are pretty, I just loved the name, since it immediately gets me thinking of what a yummy apology could be and why it might be needed.

Next up is a name-look combo. While I like both the look and the name, I probably wouldn’t have picked either one if they hadn’t been paired together - Alien Sweater. Uh, what? The image of an alien wearing a sweater just makes me giggle. But this is the perfect name for this font, and I can’t imagine this font being called anything else, so the combo is a winner.

And sticking with the alien theme, my featured font is Alien Fur. Since I usually picture aliens with the ET or X-Files type slick skin, the name is immediately intriguing. And then the font itself looks just a bit wrong somehow. It also reminds me of the movie Splinter, which is an indie horror film that really creeped me out. Anyway, here’s my tweet tale inspired by Alien Fur:

She adopted the dog after he appeared on her porch. Petting his fur calmed her, but the intelligence in his eyes always made her look away.

What do you think of these fonts? Do they inspire any stories in your mind? Have you seen the movie Splinter? How adorable is Freya with her letter A?

I have a confession to make … I like the Comic Sans font. I know! I can’t believe I just admitted that. Comic Sans is so reviled by people there’s even a meme mocking it (they call it ugly! *gasp*), but I think it does a good job of following the must-be-easy-to-read rules while still having a bit of fun. Maybe that makes it kind of like a mullet: business in the front, party in the back. Wait, that comparison is not helping me feel better about my Comic Sans affection.

But when it comes to writing, I’m a Times New Roman girl all the way. I love the classy look of it. And, MS Word, quit trying to fool me with that Cambria font you always throw at me – I can spot the difference immediately, and I don’t appreciate the switcheroo.

I know some circles prefer Courier because it’s monospaced, but I think it’s the true ugly font. And unfortunately, since it’s the standard for script formats, I have to sully my eyes with its unattractiveness while working on my screenplays.

Although I spend 99.9% of my time using boring fonts, I’ve always been fascinated by the various formats people come up with to represent the alphabet. Since I have no talent in the visual arts, I’m super impressed by the creativity artists and designers display in creating new fonts. In fact, here’s a short documentary profiling two of the best:

While these guys gained fame making business-y fonts, I’m partial to the ones with a bit more flair, so for this year’s Blogging from A to Z Challenge (my third – I can’t believe it!), I’m focusing on fun fonts.

There’s a site called 1001 Free Fonts that covers the style gamut from austere to zany, and each day I’ll present a few of their fonts that start with the assigned letter. Some I’ll pick because the actual font catches my eye, while others I’ll pick because of the name of the font, since many of them have fantastic names that are very evocative.

And because twitter fiction is kind of my thing, I’ll also pick one of the chosen fonts to use as inspiration to write a tweet tale each day. I might write the tale inspired by the look of the font, or I might use the name of the font as inspiration (or even use the actual name in the tale), but I’ll be utilizing the creativity of these font designers to spark my own creativity. That way there will be something of me in each post rather than just displaying the art of others.

I hope you enjoy the wild and wacky fonts I find and continue to pop by during this wild and wacky month of blogging!

What is your favorite font? Do you consider fonts to be a type of art? What type of font would you design? What are you doing for the A to Z Challenge?

We made it! We've reached the end of the A to Z Challenge! Unfortunately, I'll be finishing up not with a bang but a whimper because I could not find any contronyms for the letter Z on any of the lists I've collected. Zero. Zilch. Instead, I decided take the same approach I did with the letter K and pick a contronym with the letter Z in it somewhere. So I searched all my lists again, and it turns out there is only one contronym that contains the letter Z. Making it a slightly less pathetic pick, it actually has two Zs: puzzle.

Puzzle - to perplex, confuse, mystify (to pose a problem)

~ or ~

Puzzle - to solve by careful study or effort (to solve a problem)

My first year I was completely puzzled about why people would participate in something as time-consuming and draining as the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, but after meeting so many wonderful fellow bloggers, I have puzzled out why people come back year after year.

I hope you've had fun with the A to Z challenge. I had a blast learning about all the crazy contronyms out there. Thank you to all the people who stopped by for a visit! I've enjoyed getting to know all of you through your blogs, and I hope you'll stay in touch going forward.

Are you familiar with contronyms? Can you think of a ‘Z’ contronym the lists might have missed? How Zonked is Freya with her letter Z (just like I feel!)?

Added after some bloghopping: I was over at the very funny Kern’s blog where she talked about how many people post about zombies for Z because they are awesome. I did post about a zombie movie last year, but it got me thinking . . . could I have used them again this year? Is a zombie the ultimate contronym? I mean, they are the living dead. It’s probably more of an oxymoron than a contronym, but I thought I’d throw it out there.

There was only one option for the letter Y on my lists of contronyms, but now that we've reached the difficult end of the alphabet, I'm just grateful to have a contronym to talk about no matter what it is. And this one is pretty decent: yield. The meanings are not as obviously opposite as some of the contronyms I've presented, but it doesn't require as much stretching and twisting as some of the others I've seen.

Yield - to produce, give forth, or furnish

~ or ~

Yield - to give up, relinquish, surrender

The villagers are kind-hearted souls who tend their farms with love, which yields crops that are the envy of the kingdom.

But they are not fighters, so when the soldiers of the jealous king come calling, they must yield and allow all their food to be taken.

Are you familiar with contronyms? Can you think of another ‘Y’ contronym the lists might have missed? How Youthful is Bailey with her letter Y?

As I'm sure was the case for many of my fellow A to Z participants, the letter X proved to be a bit tricky. I consulted several different lists of contronyms and there was nary a X contronym to be found. I was starting to feel anxious (oh look, it's a contronym with an X in it, should I reuse it?), but then I found one more list, and lo and behold, it held the treasure I sought. And in this case, X really did mark the spot because the contronym is the letter X itself. Now I know it's technically not a word, but when that difficult-end-of-the-alphabet desperation kicks in, I'll take what I can get.

X - to indicate choice, as on a ballot or exam (select)

~ or ~

X - to cross out (deselect)

When I get my ballot, I'm so disgusted by the candidates who are such idiots they never even should have been listed that I X out their names. It only makes me feel slightly better. Then after weighing the overwhelming number of cons and very few pros of the remaining names, I pick the lesser of all the evils and X 'my choice' in this farce of an election.

Are you familiar with contronyms? Can you think of an example of a ‘X’ contronym the lists might have missed? How eXceptional is Chloe with her letter X?

Babblings of a Boob Tube Junkie

I’m a writer and filmmaker exploring the magic of stories. I’ve always loved to read and watch television and movies, and now I'm creating my own stories via YA novels, short stories, screenplays, and even short films. I’m also an animal lover with a menagerie of pets; and, yes, I’m one of those people who puts party hats on their dogs and makes them “cakes” for their birthdays.

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